Coronavirus: crack SWAT teams have virus in their sights

Australia’s 800-strong medical SWAT squad says it is able to cope with several coronavirus outbreaks across the nation at one time.

Soldiers from No 26 Transport Squadron are briefed by paramedic Alan Blank at the Burnie Ambulance Station in Tasmania. Picture: Nicci Freeman

Australia’s 800-strong medical SWAT squad says it is able to cope with several coronavirus outbreaks across the nation at once and will meet the goals Scott Morrison has set out for them to lift ­social-distancing restrictions.

Australian Medical Assistance Teams have been deployed across the country in the past few weeks to deal with a local outbreak in northwest Tasmania, evacuate cruise ship passengers in Western Australia and set up quarantine camps for people wanting to escaping the COVID-19 origin city of Wuhan in China.

An AUSMAT team of eight was due to leave northwest Tasmania and finally reopen the Burnie Hospital, scene of one of the nation’s worst outbreaks.

National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre executive director Len Notaras, who is in charge of the crack rapid-response teams of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and pathologists, told The Australian he was confident that he had the capacity to meet the Prime Minister’s goal of having a strong enough team to fight several outbreaks at once.

“The NCCTRC has a broad ­capacity to respond to a series of outbreaks … we are between 700 to 800 members and we can build on those numbers,” he said. “We can tailor a response to different outbreaks based on need, and call on defence and local resources.

“We are able to provide breathing space to local responders and we still have the capacity to rotate our teams on a two-week basis.

“While maintaining social distancing, we are also ready to train rapid-response teams and recruit so we can increase that capacity.”

Professor Notaras has run the NCCTRC since John Howard created it after the 2002 Bali bombings. Since then, its AUSMAT teams have been sent to help in international disasters and, most recently, the summer bushfires.

Since the pandemic started in January, AUSMAT teams have ­focused on quarantining ­people who may have come into contact with the coronavirus, escorting Australians from overseas to isolation camps and detecting anyone who may have the virus.

The AUSMAT team had a trial run of dealing with multiple crises at once in Western Australia last month, when it rapidly dealt with escorting people off the German cruise ship Artania and then had to help set up a separate quarantine facility on Rottnest Island for passengers from the Vasco da Gama.

AUSMAT also has the capacity to quickly set up at least four makeshift COVID-19 wards at once, with beds and ventilators, if outbreak areas need them.

“For example, if we had an outbreak in a remote Aboriginal community, we could set up a clinic for 16 patients at a time pretty quickly,” Professor Notaras said.